Filling machine



K. KIEFER FILLING MACHINE Jan. 7, 1930.

Filed DSO. 19, 1925 5 Sheets-Sheet K. KlEi-*ER FILLING MACHINE Jan. 7, 1930.

Filed Deo. 19, 1925 5 Sheets-Sheet Jan. 7, 1930. K. KIEFER 1,742,546

FILLING MACHINE Filed Deo. 19. 1925 5 sheets-sheet 5 y In vento?" Patented Jan. 7, 1930 UNITED STATE-S KARL KIEFER, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO FILLING MACHINE' Application led December 19, 1925. Serial No. 76,437.

My invention relates to machinesfor Iilling' containers with fluid substances, especially substances of a pasty or part-ly solid consistency; and its object is to provide a simple and compact construction, and to increase the accuracy and ease of operation, especially in the filling of such paste-like subst-ances to obviat'e the forming of bubbles or voids in the containers, and to avoid fouling of the containers and the machine as one container after the other is applied to and Withdrawn from the filling mechanism. A further object is to facilitate the adjustment of the machine for filling containers of various sizes accordl ing to the requirements just described. Other objects will appear in the course of theensuing description.

I attain these objects by the device illustrated, for example, in the .accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a plan view of the machine; Fig. 2 is a partial vertical cross-section on the plane of the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, showing the lifting mechanism; Fig. 3 is a corresponding section, enlarged, of the Valve head;

Fig. 4 is a side elevation o the machine, with the legs partially broken away, for lack of space; j

Fig. 5 is a partial side elevation. enlarged on the scale of Fig. 3, of the cylinder, valve head and spout structure;

Fig. 6 is a detail plan view of the spout, on the same scale; and

Fig. 7 is a detail side elevation of part of the container-feeding mechanism, on the same scale.

The long table 1, with legs 2, has a slot 3 along its nliddle, in which the chain 4 travels, with lspurs 5 adapted to engage the containers A (Fig. 4) which are pushed along the table from left to right, intermittently. The chain 4 is endless, and is carried around the drivmg sprocket wheel 6 at the left end and the sprocket wheel 7 at the rightend of the table; also passing over an idler 8 just to the left of the right hand sprocket, which keeps the chain tightly stretched. The intermittent feed is obtained by means ofthe cam wheel 9 50 geared to the driving sprocket wheel 6 by means of the gears 10 and 11 (Fig. 7) and having four radially outwardly opening slots l2 at equal intervals around its axis, into successive ones of which engages the crank 13 journaled, like the cam wheel 9 and the driv- 55 lng wheel 6, transversely in the table 1 just below its top near its left end.

Near the right end of the table, between its legs 2 at that end, two rods 14 are slidable up and down in lugs-or bearings 15 and 1,6 60 on the legs 2 and the table top, respectively, as seen in Figs. 2 and 3. Just above their lower bearings 15 a block 17 joins these rods rigidly together; and the upper ends of the rods carry respective bars 18 extended length- 65 Wise of the table. These rods 14 straddle the A chain 4, and the top of the table 1 is made with recesses intowhich the bars 18 recede when the vrods 14 are farthest down; the bars 18 then lying closely along opposite sides of the chain 4 with their upper surfaces substantially i'lush with the upper surface of the table, so that containers A pushed along by the chain spurs 5 can slide onto these bars 18. A bell crank made up of the two arms 19 and 20 is 75 fulcrumed on a bracket 21 depending from the table somewhat to the left of the rods 14. By means of a segment 22 and clamp screw 23 the angular relation of these arms around their fulcrum may be varied. The arm 19 has 80 its free end engagedl under the block 17, and the other arm 20 is slotted lengthwise. The push rod 24 has one end clamped in the slot of the arm 20. so that it may be adjusted therealong; and has its other end pivoted to the lower end of a link 25, the upper end of which is pivoted in a small bracket 26 projecting upward and sidewise from the farther edge of the table 1, near the chain-driving mechanism previously described. Past this link 25 the 90 end of the push rod 24 carries a roller 27 bearing against the periphery of the cam 28 which turns with the crank 13.

On-top of the table 1 a'shorter table or sheli1 29 1s supported by fourv legs or posts 30 95 which straddle the pathway of the containers A; two posts being at' the left and of the table 1, and the other two being just to the left of the rods 14 and bars 18 previously described, j with the shelf 29 terminatingfthereover, hav- 100 ing a semicircular recess in this end to allow passage of a container upward as lifted on the bars 18. The cylinder and valve head 31 has legs 32 straddling this recess to support the head on the shelf 29. The left hand end part of this head 31 receives the right hand ends of the two cylinders 33; and the righthand end part of the head, overhanging the end of the shelf 29, contains the transversely jou rnaled cylindrical valve member 34 across the ends of the cylinders 33, and has on its top the hopper or reservoir 35, while on its bottom is the spout 36 comprising two branches 37, each of which has one of the two filling tubes 38 projecting down over the bars 18.

The valve member 34 has two ports 39, each with its ends opening out through the periphery of the member substantially ninety degrees apart; and the head 31 has ports 40 from the adjacent ends of the cylinders 33 to the valve member 34. Also, the head 31 has aport 41 from the bottom of the hopper 35 down to this valve member 34, and ports 42 from the valve member 34 down to the respective branches 37 of the spout 36; the hopper port 41 being about ninety degrees up around the member 31 from the cylinder ports 40, while the spout ports 42 are spaced an equal number of degrees down around the member 31 from the cylinder ports 40. By oscillatingthe member 34 through the angle of this spacing, its ports 39 may Ibe l made to lead from the hopper to the cylinders, or from the cylinders to the spouts.

Pistons or plungers 43 are fitted in the respective cylinders 33, with rods 44 projecting to the left and sliding in a guide bracket 45 fixed on top of the shelf 29. Between this bracket and the cylinders 33 the cross-head 46 is fixed on both rods 44, above which it has pivoted to it one end of the pitman 47, the other end of which has a wrist pin 48 clamped in a T-slot running diametrically across the face ofthe crank disk 49 journaled transversely in a housing 5() which is supported on the left hand end part of the shelf l29 and is driven by means of a worm 51 meshing with a worm wheel 52 fixed on the shaft of the crank disk; the worm 51 being journalcd in the top part of the housing and its shaft 53 extending out to the left (Figs. 1 and 2). The back of the crank disk 49 has a cam groove 54 made up of two concentric parts of different diameters, the adjacent ends of which communicate through groove parts 55 of sufficient length to' afford an easy travell from one concentric roove part to the other of the roller 56 projecting into the groove 54 from the slide bar 57, which has a sliding bearing in the housing 50 above the crank disk shaft, between the disk and the worm gearing. The valve member 34 has a shaft 58 projecting out from the back of the head 31, on which shaft is fixed a short crank arm 59; and the valve rod 60 force the substance out through t has one end pivoted to this arm 59 and its other end pivoted to the right hand end of the slide bar 57,

Also on the shaft of the crank and cam disk 49, where the shaft projects back out of the housing 50 from the worm gear 52, is the sprocket wheel 61; and a sprocket chain 62 passes around this wheel 61 and around a similar wheel 63 which is on the shaft of the crank 13 and cam 28, before described. It will be understood that suitable driving means, such as an electric motor, for instance, may be connected to the worm shaft 53; and thus the entire machine may be driven throu h the medium of the just described sproc et connection, driving the container feeding mechanism, and through the crank feeding the substances into the containers.

The plungers 43 will be reciprocated byy the crank disk 49, and during the terminal portions of the strokes of these plungers the valve member 34 will be shifted by the cam groove parts 55, so that at each left hand travel of the plungers the valve member port 39 will admit substance from the hopper to the cylinders, and at each right hand travel this port will allow these lungers to lie spout 36 and tubes 38. The cam and crank disk 49 turns over to the right; and as shown in Figs. 1 and 4, with which Fig. 6 also agrees, the valve is about to be shifted from cylinderintake to discharge position. Fig. 4 shows the container lifting device, with the bars 18, about midway of its upward stroke; and the feeding mechanism is illustrated in Fig. 7

in corresponding positions. In Fig. 2 thelifter is entirely down.

rlhe chain 4 drives the containers along the table in single file, and the bars 18 are long enough to hold two of the containers; .the chain-driving means and the lifting means, as illustrated, being timed so that the chain will be driven to the right the distance of two spacings of the spurs 5 while the lifter is down and stationary, during which time the roller 27 is on the concentric part (Fig.'7) of the cam 28, while the crank 13 is engaged in one of the slots 12; this advance of the chain being derived from one fourth of a revolution of the cam wheel 9, which, with the crank 13, is a form of Geneva movement, with a disk 9 that turns with the crank occupyingrecesses in the cam wheel periphery.

entrances at thel bottom of the head 31 to their longitudinally arranged junctions with the tubes 38. This formation of the spout 36 is best seen in Figs. 3, 5 and 6. The plunger driving means is so related to the chain and lifter driving means, as shown, that the discharge of the substance into the containers occurs with the containers descending, with the outlet ends of' the tubes always near the upper surfaces of the substance in the containers, obviating the formation of bubbles and voids in the filled substance, as would occur from merely dropping the substance into the containers from tube outlets above the tops of the containers, or from forcing the substance into the containers from tubes opening near the bottoms of the containers. -As the roller 27 is reached by the abrupt -radially inwardly directed part 28 of thecam 28 the gradual lowering of the containers is changed to a sudden drop, resulting in sharply breaking the streams of substance discharging from the tubes 38, avoiding Stringing of the substance from one container to the other as the containers are advanced by the conveyor.

The plungers 43 may have their stroke varied to discharge predetermined amounts of substance, by adjusting the wrist pin 48 along the crank disk slot; and the degree of lifting of the containers may be varied, in accordance with the varying heights of the different containers to be filled, by adjusting the end of the push-rod 24 in the slot of the arm 20; the arm 19 being adjusted to the arm 20 by segment 22 and screw 23 to have it against the part 17 when the lifter 18 is` down `in the table 1, at any adjustment of rod 24 to arm 20.

Modifications may occur in different uses of the machine, and I do not wish to be understood as being limited to the specific disclosures herein, but having thus fully described' my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a filling machine, a conveyor` transporting for simultaneous filling a plurality of containers in single file, in combination with a plurality of measuring cylinders with reciprocating pistons horizontally arranged and with their axes parallel to the conveyor, a series of filling spouts with their outlets longitudinally spaced along the conveyor.

2. In a filling machine, a conveyor intermittently moving, transporting for simultaneous filling a plurality of containers in single file, in combination with a plurality of measuring cylinders vwith reciprocating pistons horizontally arranged side by'side and with their axes parallel with the direction of the conveyor, a series of filling spouts with their outlets longitudinally spaced along the conveyor.

3. In a filling machine, a straight line conveyor moving step by step and transporting for simultaneous filling a plurality of containersin a single file, said containers spaced apart .in fixed distances, in combination with a plurality of measuring cylinders with reciprocating pistons with their axes horizontal and parallel to the conveyor, a series of filling spouts with their outlets longitudinally spaced along theconveyor.

' KARL KIEFER. 

